Review: Psi Ops

Platform: PS2
Developer: Midway
Publisher: Midway

I’ve always wanted to lift someone up with my mind, set them on fire, and hurl them into their friends, in turn setting them on fire. That’s the gameplay of PsiOps, and man is it fun.

You are Nick Scryer, psychic secret agent, it’s up to you to infiltrate the evil organization known as The Movement. At the start of your journey, you’ve recently lost your psychic abilities, so you must unlock them throughout the game. And once you begin doing that, it’s all about the combos. Seven abilities can be combined for some pretty inventive methods of murder, which mean the game rarely gets tired. For instance, you can lift a dude up, shoot him, throw him around, make him shoot his friends. You’ve also got the ability to fire weapons, throw fire, see through walls, and drain an enemies life force. These abilities also help you get around, such as by stacking boxes with telekinesis.

Graphically speaking it’s dope, with plenty of eye candy and a physics engine that makes killing baddies all the more fun. If there’s a downfall at all, it’s that the enemy AI is lacking, or rather, their thought process is. It should be easy for a throng of dudes with guns to take you out, superpowers or no, but for the most part you rarely find yourself cornered in battle. Mostly you’re just kicking ass and taking names. And while the game encourages stealth at times, there’s no real need for it when you can blaze through enemies like a fox through a henhouse. But overall, PsiOps is a good solid game worth checking out. Sniff sniff… I smell franchise.